Theories of intelligence in Russian psychology.

Article No. 4: “How is the mind formed? Jean Piaget's concept of intelligence"

The development of intelligence is an integral part of personality development. How does intelligence develop? What stages does it go through? Concepture publishes a short article on the most fundamental theory in this field, the theory of Jean Piaget.

Jean Piaget is a Swiss scientist who, at the very beginning of his research path, clearly outlined the subject of his scientific interest - the patterns of development of human intelligence. In his youth, having experienced the strong influence of the French philosopher Henri Bergson, Piaget discovered a fundamentally new side of the problem of knowledge, namely, the possibility of its biological explanation. And since there was a gap between biology and epistemology that needed to be filled, Piaget turned to psychology. He developed a holistic approach, called “genetic epistemology,” and his operational concept of the development of intelligence is still considered by many experts to be the highest achievement of psychology of the 20th century. Piaget, as a psychologist, is distinguished by a high level of erudition in related fields, such as biology, philosophy, logic. His research is based on a scrupulous analysis of a huge number of recorded and carefully selected empirical facts.

Within the framework of Piaget's theory, intelligence is understood as an instrument that structures the relationship between the organism and the environment. In other words, the main function of intelligence is adaptation. Adaptation is achieved through

optimal balance between assimilation (assimilating new subjects to already established skills) and accommodation (adapting one’s skills and abilities to new conditions). Intellectual activity is a derivative of the child’s material actions. Piaget calls the element of intellectual activity “operation.” The operation is an internalized (learned) physical action. Not all physical actions can serve as the basis for the formation of operations, but only actions of a general nature, such as: combining, ordering, dividing, rearranging objects. Piaget notes that an operation cannot exist on its own; it functions only within an ordered system of operations, which he calls a “group.” Groups are stable-moving structures of intelligence. Actually, the development of intelligence according to Piaget is the formation of a system of operator structures. First, the child performs physical actions with objects, then he separates these actions from the objects, and finally he masters the logic of this separation and operating with the results of separation (i.e., abstractions coming from the actions themselves). Piaget identifies 4 main stages in the development of thinking:

1

Sensorimotor stage. Occurs from birth to 2 years. During this period, the child's reflexes turn into repetitive actions. He learns to reproduce the pleasant results of his random actions, coordinates them in order to prolong the pleasant effect they cause (positive emotional impression). Major achievements of this period include representational construction (the ability to represent absent events in symbolic form) and intentionality (goal-directed action).

2

Preoperative stage. Lasts from 2 to 7 years. The child establishes a number of functional patterns relating to the environment (if he sobs hysterically, the mother will fulfill her wish). At this age, children's egocentrism clearly manifests itself: the concentration of thinking exclusively on one aspect, in which other points of view are either rejected or not taken into account at all. The patterns that the child discovers at this stage are not based on the laws of logic and cause-and-effect relationships, but on associations by contiguity (two events are repeated simultaneously or with a short interval so that the occurrence of one evokes the other in memory). This is confirmed by the fact that at this age children’s explanations for their actions are absurd inventions or attempts to justify their egocentric desires at any cost.

3

Stage of concrete operations. It occurs between the ages of 7 and 12 years. During this period, the child corrects mistakes that he made at the previous stage. They are corrected one by one depending on the specific content of a particular problem (hence the name “stage of specific operations”). The child forms the first logical concepts, associating them with specific objects. This leads to the emergence of a certain objectivity, the ability to consider different points of view. There is an understanding of some logical principles (if A = B and B = C, then A = C). At this age, children can organize objects according to various characteristics (height or weight), imagine in their minds and name a series of actions performed or completed.

4

Stage of formal operations. The highest stage of intelligence development. It starts at 12 and continues throughout life). The child becomes able to think abstractly and theoretically, that is, he operates with both objects and statements. At this stage, the ability to systematically (comprehensively) search for ways to solve problems develops, viewing many solution options and assessing the effectiveness of each of them.

To summarize, we can say that the development of intelligence, according to Piaget, is influenced by 3 factors: biological maturation, experience acquired in the process of maturation and the existing social environment, including upbringing and training.

We recommend reading:

1. Jean Piaget – “Genetic epistemology”;

2. Jean Piaget - “Speech and thinking of a child.”

Psychometric theories of intelligence

Psychology » Psychological theories of intelligence » Psychometric theories of intelligence

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These theories claim that individual differences in human cognition and mental abilities can be adequately measured by special tests. Adherents of psychometric theory believe that people are born with different intellectual potential, just as they are born with different physical characteristics, such as height and eye color. They also argue that no amount of social programs can transform people with different mental abilities into intellectually equal individuals. There are the following psychometric theories presented in Figure 1. Ultrasonic gas flow meters NK Innovations

Figure 1. Psychometric theories of personality

Let's consider each of these theories separately.

Ch. Spearman's two-factor theory of intelligence [1]. The first work in which an attempt was made to analyze the structure of the properties of intelligence appeared in 1904. Its author, Charles Spearman, an English statistician and psychologist, creator of factor analysis, he drew attention to the fact that there are correlations between different intelligence tests: the one who performs well on some tests and turns out, on average, to be quite successful in others. In order to understand the reason for these correlations, C. Spearman developed a special statistical procedure that allows one to combine correlated intelligence indicators and determine the minimum number of intellectual characteristics that are necessary to explain the relationships between different tests. This procedure, as we have already mentioned, was called factor analysis, various modifications of which are actively used in modern psychology.

Having factorized various intelligence tests, C. Spearman came to the conclusion that correlations between tests are a consequence of a common factor underlying them. He called this factor “factor g” (from the word general - general). The general factor is crucial for the level of intelligence: according to the ideas of Charles Spearman [1], people differ mainly in the extent to which they possess the g factor.

In addition to the general factor, there are also specific ones that determine the success of various specific tests. Thus, the performance of spatial tests depends on the g factor and spatial abilities, and on mathematical tests - on the g factor and mathematical abilities. The greater the influence of factor g, the higher the correlations between tests; The greater the influence of specific factors, the weaker the connection between tests. The influence of specific factors on individual differences between people, as Ch. Spearman [1] believed, is of limited importance, since they do not manifest themselves in all situations, and therefore they should not be relied upon when creating intellectual tests.

Thus, the structure of intellectual properties proposed by Charles Spearman turns out to be extremely simple and is described by two types of factors - general and specific. These two types of factors gave the name to Charles Spearman's theory - the two-factor theory of intelligence.

In a later edition of this theory, which appeared in the mid-20s, C. Spearman recognized the existence of connections between some intelligence tests. These connections could not be explained either by the g factor or by specific abilities, and therefore C. Spearman introduced to explain these connections the so-called group factors - more general than specific, and less general than the g factor. However, at the same time, the main postulate of Charles Spearman’s theory remained unchanged: individual differences between people in intellectual characteristics are determined primarily by general abilities, i.e. factor g.

But it is not enough to isolate the factor mathematically: it is also necessary to try to understand its psychological meaning. To explain the content of the general factor, C. Spearman made two assumptions. First, the g factor determines the level of “mental energy” required to solve various intellectual problems. This level is not the same for different people, which also leads to differences in intelligence. Secondly, factor g is associated with three features of consciousness - the ability to assimilate information (gain new experience), the ability to understand the relationship between objects and the ability to transfer existing experience to new situations.

C. Spearman's first assumption regarding the level of energy is difficult to consider as anything other than a metaphor. The second assumption turns out to be more specific, determines the direction of the search for psychological characteristics and can be used when deciding what characteristics are essential for understanding individual differences in intelligence. These characteristics must, firstly, correlate with each other (since they must measure general abilities, i.e. factor g); secondly, they can address the knowledge that a person has (since a person’s knowledge indicates his ability to assimilate information); thirdly, they must be associated with solving logical problems (understanding various relationships between objects) and, fourthly, they must be associated with the ability to use existing experience in an unfamiliar situation.

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